ARRL General Bulletin ARLB005 (2002)

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ARLB005 FCC invites petition comments
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ARRL Bulletin 5 ARLB005
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT January 10, 2002
To all radio amateurs
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ARLB005 FCC invites petition comments
The FCC is seeking comments on four Amateur Radio rule making
petitions filed recently and put on public notice this week.
Comments are due by February 7, 2002, in petitions seeking to
legally separate wideband and narrowband modes on 160 meters, allow
hams to bequeath their call signs ''in memoriam'' to a specific club,
expand HF operating privileges for Novice and Tech Plus operators,
and permit retransmission on amateur frequencies of NASA manned
spacecraft communications.
A proposal from veteran Top Band operators and contesters Bill
Tippett, W4ZV, and Jeff Briggs, K1ZM, asks the FCC to subdivide 160
meters into mode-specific subbands. The petition, submitted to the
FCC in September, has been designated as RM-10352. Tippett and
Briggs contend that the ARRL band plan for 160 meters--modified last
year after lengthy consideration by the ad hoc ARRL 160-Meter Band
Plan Committee on which both men sat--does not go far enough and is
unenforceable. They want the FCC to prohibit SSB, AM and other
wideband modes below 1.843 MHz, as the ARRL band plan recommends.
Tippett and Briggs said that while the topic of their petition did
arise during the ARRL committee's deliberations, their petition is
an independent effort with no connection to the committee or the
ARRL.
The Quarter Century Wireless Association has asked the FCC to change
its amateur vanity call sign system rules to permit individual
amateurs to, in effect, will a call sign to a designated club as an
''in memoriam'' call sign. The FCC has designated the petition,
submitted in December, as RM-10353. The QCWA notes that the current
vanity rule ''excludes current licensees from speaking for
themselves'' while they're still alive and ''requires their relatives
to speak for them post mortem.''
Novice licensee John S. Rippey, W3ULS, has petitioned the FCC to
expand HF phone and CW privileges for Novice operators. The FCC has
designated the petition, submitted in December, as RM-10354. Rippey
held a General ticket in the 1950s and 1960s and obtained his former
call sign after relicensing as a Novice in 1999. Rippey has asked
the FCC to grant Novice and Technician (with Element 1 credit)
licensees new or expanded operating privileges on 80, 40, 30, 17,
15, 12 and 10 meters. His suggestions include SSB privileges for
Novices and Tech Plus licensees on 17 and 12 meters.
The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center Amateur Radio Club is seeking
a modification in wording to the Part 97 rule that already permits
amateur retransmission of NASA manned shuttle communications. The
petition has been designated as RM-10355. The club wants the Amateur
Service rule, Sec 97.113(e), to include International Space Station
communications as well as any manned spacecraft in the future.
Interested parties may comment on any or all of these petitions via
the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System,
http://www.fcc.gov/e-file/ecfs.html.
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